Impact Your Organization: Gather Real-Time Information

· Increase in the demand for value. The increasingly knowledgeable consumer has become even more selective in making purchasing decisions.

· Increase in the use of exchanges. Information aggregators and exchanges have grown in importance as the volume of accessible information increases.i

Regarding organizations, the increase in information quality can reduce transaction costs and facilitate and ultimately force organizational consolidation. How? In any given market or industry, as the cost of information discovery and usage comes down, market consolidation will occur as marginal players who relied on or exploited information inefficiencies become non-competitive.

So how does your organization take advantage of this trove of information? Take a brief assessment by identifying which one of the following best describes how your organization gathers information:

1. We get financial statements.

2. We use computer analysis of sales, customers, etc.

3. We get all of the above, plus have a business or competitive intelligence function.

4. We have a global intelligence, information-gathering team with direct access to the CEO.

5. All of the above plus we have an intelligence function that is highly valued by our entire organization.

Some have suggested incorporating the value of an intelligence function through the addition of a chief intelligence officer (CIO)—someone who, in REAL TIME, continues to gather current information that will potentially impact the organization (Schneider, 2017; Tsukayama, 2015).

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About Keith Starcher

Dr. Starcher is a full-time faculty member in the DeVoe School of Business at Indiana Wesleyan University. He has 30+ years of experience in both Fortune 500 and family-owned businesses. Keith and his wife, Margaret, grew up near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and to this day remain loyal Steelers’ fans.